As a makeup artist and hairstylist who specializes in weddings, the number one question I get asked regarding my bridal work is, “Do you meet a lot of Bridezillas?” It always makes me laugh because as human beings we love to dish on the terrible behavior of others, and we're especially fascinated by the spontaneous combustion of someone when they are typically expected to be at their most graceful. A bride who is a disaster on her wedding day for some reason tickles our fancy.
To answer this question, I often ponder, “What defines a bridezilla? What makes a seemingly harmless woman on the most important day of her life, be classified as the human version of Godzilla?” Is it a bride who is particular? Clear on what she wants? Is it a bride who is vocal about her likes and dislikes? What about if she makes a few demands on her family and friends? Or if she gives a vendor a less than favorable “talking to” based on their performance/product/service? Does that equate her to a menacing, oversized reptile?
You might disagree but I would say that it doesn't. To understand my assertion you must first, take a moment to put this whole wedding process into perspective through the eyes of a bride.
Imagine you're a bride-to-be, all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. You're excited, newly engaged, and about to begin the process of planning your wedding. The very first thing you discover- to your dismay, is how much everything is going to cost. It's almost guaranteed to be far more than you expected. And whether you have the money saved away or not, it becomes very apparent that your wedding is going to leave a huge dent in your bank account. But hey, there's no way around it so you keep pressing forward. Your next surprise is that there is an overwhelming amount of details that need to be handled mainly by you- most of which hadn't even crossed your mind. As you begin to address each item, you realize that the time you're spending doing so is rivalling your full time job. Your exhausted, but... it's for your wedding so... you persevere. Next, you slowly begin to recognize that out of the many people in your life who squealed with excitement when you first announced your engagement, very few are actually going to lend you a much needed hand throughout this entire process. This is disappointing for some brides at best, and at worst- relationship altering for others. You're feeling frustrated. Add to all of this the rather unrealistic expectation that you'll get it all done right despite never having done this before. It's the perfect recipe for an understandably overwhelmed, stressed out, exhausted bride-to-be. So I'd like to ask, if a bride makes a few demands here and there, becomes more detailed oriented (because she's been bombarded with details for likely over a year), and loses her patience every now and again with an ill-prepared vendor, is she not justified? Can we not understand where she is coming from? This common scenario I don't believe qualifies someone as a bridezilla.
But of course, there are indeed the small minority of brides who do venture into the realm of the unreasonable, and tend to mirror the monstrosity of the fear-inducing beast that is Godzilla . They are not the typical bride described above- they're an entirely different breed. They're the extreme micro-managers. They're the ones who insist that every single detail, no matter how minute- go exactly according to plan. They are in no way accepting of any “Acts of God” that most people understand as the unavoidable and inevitable fine print in the contract of life. They are the brides whose itineraries are timed to the “5's and 0's”... 8:05 am, 8:10 am, 8:15 am, 8:20 am, etc. They are the brides who exhibit not understandable upset when something unplanned occurs, but rather disproportionate rage, fury, or devastation over anything that does not go their way. It's these brides (if I must use this label for any of my clients) I'd call bridezillas, and they are both shocking and perplexing. Seeing them live and in action is both fascinating and yet somewhat inconceivable. Yes, they are a car wreck and yes, it is definitely a memorable sight to see. But it is not the norm and luckily, they're behavior is not representative of most brides.
So it's true- bridezillas are very real. Their Godzilla sized fury and epic mellow-dramatic nature are always one for the books. But thankfully, they are also much like Bigfoot as well- rarely seen, a fascinating sight when you do catch a glimpse of it, and gone just as quickly as it came. We as artists, the beholders of such encounters, carry on with life allowing these bizarre experiences to fade from memory. Of course until the next rare sighting- when the monster pops up somewhere new, and rear it's ugly head.